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ff late I have been
deprived of the local news of my home town, Bangalore. So, I make it a point to
read the Deccan Herald epaper to keep myself abreast of the happenings in my
city and also because the Deccan gives that slightly local flavor, which
appeals to me and makes me feel less homesick.
Recently I was late to the
office, and I wanted to give a quick glance at the newspaper. While I was
reading, I chanced upon the word Kempegowda. Kempegowda, the Nada Prabhu (Lord
of the land) was the ruler of the old city of Bangalore, back when Bangalore
was the vassal state of the erstwhile kingdom of Vijayanagara. For the myriad
of good done by the former ruler, the city has immense respect for the
personality and has honored the man by naming a few landmarks in Bangalore
after him. As most of the readers of this article would know, the famous bus
station in the Majestic area, at the heart of Bangalore, is named as ‘The
Kempegowda Bus Terminus’. Famous as it is, when I read Kempegowda in the
paper, my mind automatically went to the bus terminus.
Later, at some point in the
day when I happened to think about it again, I realized that it was actually
the newly named airport in Bangalore that was being referred to in the
newspaper. Now, I am sure that this confusion has happened to several of you
and won’t stop with me either. Indeed a great landmark, the Bangalore
International Airport, ought to be named after someone important, and who else
can be more important to the Bangaloreans than its founder ruler. But why name
two important landmarks in the same city, with similar nature of business with
the same name? If a tourist friend of mine tells me “I’ll meet you at 0230 at
Kempegowda and we shall catch a bus to your home from there.”, then he better
meet me at the platform where the 31E busses stop at Majestic because that’s
where I’ll be waiting.
India is a land of hero
worshippers, from kings to movie stars, we love them all. We have also had a
lot of heroes over time. I mean lots. So it only means that there was a broad
scope for us to revere some other hero, by bestowing his/ her name to the
airport in Bangalore, but since the issue got politicized, people had little
say and there ended the matter.
Bangaloreans have been very
diverse and it is reflected in the way they have named various places around
the city. We have named places after scientists (C.V. Raman Nagar, C.N.R Rao
Circle), kings (K.R. Circle, N.R. Colony, J.C. Road, Jayanagar), freedom
fighters (Jawahar Bal Bhavan, Ambedkar Nagar, M.G Road), soldiers (Maneckshaw
Parade Grounds, Field Marshall Cariappa road), saints (Thyagaraja Nagar, St.
Marks Road), actors (Raj Kumar Road, Shankar Nag Circle), cricketer (Anil
Kumble Circle), the British names (Frazer Town, Richmond Circle), the list is
long and broad.
So, ultimately we can say
that it is the politics (or certain pressure groups influencing the people in
politics) that has its say in the big matters and since we vote certain people
to power, we can’t even complain for what they end up doing. The ruling
government, invariably names roads, buildings, bridges, even parks after
leaders from its own parties. I have noticed that the Yashwantpur Flyover is
called the ‘Pt. Deendayal Upadhyaya Flyover’ (after the prominent member of the
Bharatiya Jana Sangh, from which the current BJP was born) and the bus stand at
Shanthi Nagar is called ‘The Atal Bihari Vajpayee Bus Terminus’ (after the
BJP’s famous Prime Minster), both of which I am sure, was inaugurated during
the BJP’s regime in our state. The value and integrity of the people whose
names are given are unquestionable, they are indeed honourable, but the people
who use their names are the ones who do it with all the wrong intentions. It
would have been truly great if the same flyover and bus terminus would have
been given the same names but when a different party was in power. But we do
not see such non- partisan behavior even in a cosmopolitan city like Bangalore
and end up with instances like the present the Kempegowda debacle. Forming a
small committee to name a landmark, empowering the locals, to decide based on
popular mandate and logic can do the trick which is apparently too burdensome
to a few.
Well, it’s done and I have
to be careful when I read the newspaper from now on. But what if I were
appointed to give the new airport a name, what would I have named it?
Wright Brothers
International Airport? (after all they invented the aircraft), JRD Tata
International Airport? (He brought civil aviation to my country), Rakesh Sharma
International? ( He was the first Indian to fly to outer space and lived in
Bangalore for sometime), Tipu Sultan International? (after the great ruler,
freedom fighter from Karnataka), Rani Chenamma International? (after the
patriot warrior, plus it would be the second airport to be named after a woman
in India), Visvesvaraya International? (after the greatest engineer of the
country, Kannadiga), Kuvempu International? (after the recipient of the Gnana
peetha Award and our Rashtrakavi), N.R. Narayana Murthy International? (after
the Employer for lakhs across the state and country and a Bangalorean), Rahul
Dravid International? (after the International Cricketer who has won hearts of
the entire nation and a Bangalorean).
